Have you been paying attention to all the hubbub online about the proposed U.S. legislation (SOPA/PIPA) that threatens internet freedom? I wrote about it last week over on WordPress.org, but the gist is this: there’s a bill in the U.S. Senate that if passed would put publishing freedom severely at risk, and could shut down entire sites at the whim of media companies. Fight for the Future created this nifty video to sum it up better than I can.
On January 18, 2012, sites all over the internet will be blacking out to protest and try to mobilize more people to speak out against this bill coming up in the Senate next week — S. 968: the Protect IP Act (PIPA) — in an attempt to let U.S. lawmakers know how much opposition there is. WordPress.org, Wikipedia, and even WordPress.com VIP I Can Has Cheezburger? will be participating in the blackout to raise awareness and spur you to action.
Here on WordPress.com, we want to participate as well. Freshly Pressed will be blacked out during the strike.
Sorry to take away your daily fix of yummy web content, but this bill threatens to do that on a much wider scale. You don’t want that, do you?
More importantly, we are making it possible for you to participate in the protest. There are two options: a “Stop Censorship” ribbon and a full blackout. The blackout portion will be in effect January 18 from 8am to 8pm EST, while the ribbon will be displayed until January 24. Here’s how to join in:
- Go to Settings → Protest SOPA/PIPA in your dashboard.
- Select if you want to join the blackout or show a ribbon.
- If you choose to join the blackout, you can edit the message that will be shown on your site during the blackout.
- Preview what your protest will look like.
- Click “Save Changes” button to activate your protest.
That’s it! Easy-peasy activism right at your fingertips.
The “Stop Censorship” ribbon will display in the upper corner of your site and links to americancensorship.org. It will display until January 24, 2012 (the Senate vote date).
If you choose to do the blackout in addition to the ribbon, then we will black out your site from 8am to 8pm EST along with the official strike. You can customize the message that will appear on your blacked-out site to tell people why this issue is important to you. Your site will return to just displaying the ribbon after the strike is over.
I hope that a significant number of you on WordPress.com will join in this protest. Publishing freedom is a right we must protect.
And one last pitch: whatever you decide to do about your site, please take a few minutes to head over to americancensorship.org and take action. It only takes a few moments of your time to be an agent of change!
Update, 1/18/2012: For about an hour and a half of the blackout, our blackout option was down because it was not showing the blackout screen and some sites were returning blank error pages. We disabled it until we could make it work properly, which it is now doing, so anyone who chose the blackout option should now see the correct screen.
WordPress.com News 
Very Good 😀
Having been an opponent of most censorship for most of my life, I will be joining the protest.
Obscenely wealthy rockstars and global media empires have hogged the limelight on this issue out of sheer greed for far too long, while politicians are using it to exercise even more control over the masses.
Having said that, there are serious issues affecting us: the day to day users of the internet, the ones who provide the bread and butter that keeps the whole thing working, serious issues that are not being addressed. Issues people like you and I face on a daily basis we, the people in bedrooms, garages and dens. We already provide much of the material – probably the vast majority. We provide music, images, stories, poetry and film. Usually for free. Yet we also provide the money that keeps the big boys in business. Who protects our interests? Who defends our copyright?
There definitely are host companies abusing their present freedoms to an unaccepatable degree. Whereas they cannot be expected to act as policeman for the state, they should start to assume some responsibilty where sufficient evidence is produced to suggest serious crime may have been committed. Unfortunately, this is often not the case where small users are concerned. All too often there are host companies acting against the interests of small users when it suits them. They act as police, judge and jury upon receiving complaints. In behaving in this manner, those host companies are acting against everyone’s interests.
Of course it cannot be right for host companies to be seen as aiding and abetting crimes committed on their sites, crimes such as internet piracy and breaches of copyright as, to my understanding, the proposed legislation intends. They cannot be aware of, or be held responsible for, everything that is occurring. The internet has become far too vast for that to be practical, or even desirable. It is up to the big companies who feel they are losing out to bear the costs involved, and for state investigating authorities to prosecute those directly involved in the crimes where necessary. God, we pay enough in taxes and retail prices for it.
But where host companies are informed of alleged crimes they should be obliged to inform the authorities, and not act alone. If they don’t, then they must be held responsible for the consequences of not doing so. They cannot have it all ways. Having been stalked on the internet I give an example of what I mean on my blog: http://bryanhemming.wordpress.com/2011/10/27/breaches-of-cpyright-and-members-fortunecity/
I fully believe most companies hosting the net want to act responsibly. Nevertheless, like everyone else they must be held to account when in clear breach of the law. Unfortunately, we live in a society where most legislation is brought into being for the infractions of the few. That legislation must take into consideration all interests and not just those with the loudest voices, most money and biggest vested interests. The consumers’ interests must be represented as a priority. As I understand it, the proposed legislation does not take into account these interests, and actually goes against them.
If we need legislation we also need proper representation. Our democratic rights must not be sacrificed for a wealthy and powerful elite.
Yay! Thanks for making this option possible! I had set the ribbon to all of my WP.org domains and was a little sad I wouldn’t be able to do it on WP.com! Better late than never 🙂
I’m in the UK so I’ve opted for a ribbon on my blogs – they say what happens in the US today will happen everywhere else tomorrow….
I’m French but I want to follow this cause! I would like to support the U.S. against this project of law, hoping that this initiative will really help you! courage! 🙂
This is great, thanks so much for this
i really appreciate this protest
We will be joining the censorship protest, this bill is poorly thought out and badly written.
Thank You WP for making it so easy to join in. Done it already.
Hi, I am happy to support this threat on our right to express our opinions and although I am writing from the UK, the censorship on the web is like to effect us all and not just around America.
I am in total agreement that our muscians, movie makes and teleivision producers should get paid for their work and it should not be pirated. But SOPA is definitely going too far.
Count me in on this protest.
JT
Great! I’m blacking out my site. No need for more censorship just because the media companies say so.
I am going to participate, thank you for doing such action. I am already doing a shout out for this…
We put up the ribbon in our site. 🙂
I was not online for a couple of days and now I think I am to late… yet I made sure a tweet and a thousand more anything elses I can do will go on on through out the day and if I can still do it on my site… please someone lead me through it like a 1st grader trying their first attempt at reading.
Thank you so very much for creating an easy way for WordPress users to participate. I’m using the ribbon, and instead of blacking out my page have decided to write a post today which will reach all of my followers. I really appreciate the WordPress stance and protest!
Thanks WordPress! I’ve joined as well. I published a heads-up for my readers this morning. –jim
This is wonderful – thanks for helping us become part of the protests!
SOPA This is one virus that should not be permitted to infect the internet and go viral world wide. Here in the UK we support this protest, Thanks WordPress for giving us this FREE SPEECH opportunity, long may it continue.
I’d like to use the ribbon, but the preview only shows “op censorship”
Realize my Safari needs upgrading, but I can’t upgrade it unless I buy a whole new Safari…and I cannot afford to.
I’m sure site visitors will figure it out.
Thank you! You made it so simple!
Great idea! just blocked my site.
Excellent… thank you for letting us know about this
Thanks WordPress for taking a stand. I love this platform and hope that you will always protest attacks on freedom of speech like SOPA and PIPA.
I’m in — proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free…for now…
Thank you for participating! I have shared and spread the word!
i am totally with you…..
THANK YOU!
Thanks so much for making this three-click easy and for providing info on my blackout page on how to become involved. You guys rock.
Someone wrote “Although we support “Protest SOPA/PIPA”, the WordPress banner covers the link to our “links” page. Too bad one cannot adjust the placement of the banner.”=> I don’t think that is a good reason to not placing the black ribbon on your blog. Are the links more important from a movement against the censorship? Definitely is out of question.
I’m in!
Thank You! I am going to be participating!
Count me in!
nice. i went on wikipedia, saw the blackout, wrote a long post about ti on my blog and then discovered that wordpress is also blacking out, . awesome.
go check out my post
I did the ribbon and voted for my freedom of creativity.
Thank you WordPress!
Definately participating in this worthy cause. I have just found my blogging voice and do not want it silenced.
I’m in! I don’t have many visitors, like 3 per day, but it feels good to participate anyway!
Guys that ‘s a superb initiative … my blog is completely blacked out even though i’m not in the US .. but I know that such a legislation will have repercussions around the world … i just wanted to let you know that I signed the petition for the non-US residents but when trying to use the facebook & twitter share buttons, both failed to work … would love to spread the word … so please let me know how!
Thanks I’m joing too.
If it’s a fundamental right, why are they playing around with it? Their always doing what they think is right in their minds but our minds don’t seem to be up to do anything it seems… thank god we elect them anyways, don’t you think. ;-(
I hope wordpress.com gives us the stats on the number of blogs which participated in this protest (including mine). Thanks for giving us this option.
I posted the blackout/banner on my BLOG site this morning. However, when you look at it the blanks are not clear regarding what should be filled out to submit the form. They are just blank – they should tell you where your name, etc goes so that you can easily submit the call to Congress.
free information.free net is very important like water and air it is very serious I share with you
I’m in, because hell if i ever let them get away with this…
I have contacted officials from Ohio. If needed, I will help in any way.
Charlie
I may not be a US citizen, but I support the hell out of this.
Done
I put the ribbon on my blog page. I wanted to black it out completely but I guess my theme won’t let me. I’m also not posting anything on Facebook for 24 hours – which I suspect might actually make some of my friends happy. But SOPA needs to be defeated. As a liberal Democrat, I will be pretty pissed if any Dems vote for it.
Hey…not an American but keep that fight going. Keep information free.
Power to the POSTER! Thank you!
Jay
NO SOPA NO PIPA!!!!!
FRO ALL NYC residents today protest at Schummers office, he won’t listen, we will make him listen
My blackout page and banner have vanished…
The blackout option was broken for a bit but it’s back now!
trying to join but i can’t blackout my blog…even in preview mode from the settings it’s fully visible…does anyone have a hint?
The blackout option was broken for a bit but is working now. Your site is all blacked out now.
my site does not appear to be blacked out even though saved in settings, no ribbon either
The blackout option was broken for a bit but is working now. Your site is blacked out.
Jane,
I would like to do a study on the power of the web to invoke change. Do you have connections at WordPress that would allow me to find out the aggregate and anonyminized data of who used the Protest SOPA/PIPA! plugin or like coding.
I’m am trying to participate. Everytime I click save changes for the blackout and the ribbon there is no change to my blog. Is there a glitch in the system?
Thanks,
Terry
The blackout option was broken for a bit but your site is showing as blacked out now.
Thanks but i wish it would work for me I have followed the instructions to the T and nothing earlier this morning I had a ribbon but no blackout now I have nothing.any help would be greatly appreciated THANKS!
The blackout option was broken for a bit but is working now. Your site is blacked out now.
I opted for the full blackout around 11:30 last night, but as of 9:15 AM, my blog is still visible. The preview mode of the full blackout isn’t working for me, either.
The blackout option was broken for a bit but is working now. Your site is showing as blacked out now.
I have selected the blackout option but it does not seem to be working.
asianandhiscamera.wordpress.com
Both mine and another friends computer still gets normal access to my site.
The blackout option was broken for a bit but is working now. Your site’s blacked out now.
This didn’t work for me. I can add the ribbon to my site, but not the blackout.
The blackout option was broken for a bit but is working now. Can you check again?
I will be participating! I love the internet, facebook, youtube, twitter, and wordpress. This can’t be allowed to happen. Where is the social media lobby? Facebook, Google, and Apple have more money than the entertainment industry… why aren’t they flexing their muscle?
I joined the censorship protest last night and I have the black ribbon displayed, but neither of my blogs are blacked out when I checked last. Do I have to contact support for this issue? Wikipedia is already blacked out.
The blackout option was broken for a bit but is working now. Take another look?
I want join the protest and black out my site, but it doesn’t appear to be working. The banner shows up, but my site isn’t fully blacked out. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks for setting this up! SOPA is dangerous and must be stopped!
The blackout option was broken for a bit but is working now.
The full blackout is not working on my site. I can only do the ribbon. whats up?
The blackout option was broken for a bit but is working now. Check again?
Thank you!!!
Weird, my blog was blacked out, my settings are for it to be so, but now it’s back to normal with a ribbon. What gives?
@Marvi – hi, this was a temporary glitch & is now fixed. You should see the full site blackout now.
Blackout Hollywood! Boycott Hollywood movies for a week! Or maybe until the Academy Awards.
I’m on board. Thanks for the info and all you’ve done to make it easy for people to participate in the protest.
I shall display the ribbon. Thank you.
Thank you WordPress!!
I´m in! (¡Yo estoy participando!)
I think very few of those who use the Internet know about legislative intent proposed by the U.S..
Should be more publicity of the project and explained cups in all languages which would impact on end-user Internet.
No! I won’t join your protest. As a professional photographer and copyright OWNER I DO NOT see SOPA/PIPA as censorship. If you don’t infringe or ignore infringement on your site then you have noting to worry about. And DMCA is an ineffective tool.
It seems to me, in this age of internet anarchy, that “ownership” of creative material is irrelevant. I OWN my images and I expect my copyrights to be honored or those who don’t should suffer the consequences.
The problem with SOPA/PIPA is that it is not limited to the infringing content itself, or even to the site it’s on — even linking to something else on a site could cause a block. How would you like it if someone else on wordpress.com posted a video of their kid dancing and singing along to “Moves Like Jagger” or something, and your site was blocked even though you had nothing to do with it? DMCA isn’t perfect, but at least it is focused on the actual infringing content. Saying we need something better than DMCA does not mean SOPA or PIPA are well-written, appropriate laws.
Finally I am in on the protest, thick as I am I did not realize at first that I needed to cut and paste your template and put it into my ordinary new post box. But my brain got there eventually!! Our parents and grandparents fort for us to have freedom of speech and expression!
You shouldn’t need to copy and paste anything. The blackout option was broken for a bit but is working now.
i agree!
I am joining the censorship protest too. Hasta la victoria
I’m glad you guys offered this option! I didn’t see this article when it was posted, and I was afraid that WP.com wasn’t going to be participating! ^^;
Is that for every one on earth or only for U.S. ? Are we concerned in France too ? The freedom of speech isn’t in your constitution ? I put the ribbon on !!
In full support of this, wrote an article on this only a few hours ago, please read.
Thanks Rebecca
We’re on board.
Awesome way to help us blogging community to join in the protest. I have fought censorship against books, television, radio, so absolutely a no brainer for me to join this. Thanks WP!
I’m definitely supporting this!
Thanks Jane, and WordPress for doing this. I’m hosting the banner, but won’t do black-out today only because I wasn’t aware ahead of time and just yesterday invited new friends to follow my blog. If there will be another black-out day, I may join.
You are the best!
Thank you for doing this. My only Internet access is from the library and I can’t provide the data and access the site the way I need to be active int eh strike, but I am active in my heart.
Why these socalled develope people are trying to put barriers to the free flowing of Information. Tell me where is their democracy….DEMO-CRAZY!!!!!!!
With me, you too perhaps feel that there is a huge challenge thrown to the access of of knowledge and information. Freedom of thought and expression must be preserved. Let’s all be a part of this noble cause — Protest Censorship! Compassion and not vested interests must win in the long run.
I don’t understand this. Don’t people deserve to have their work protected? Does protecting liberty give the right to steal?
Yes, but this poorly-written legislation isn’t about protecting artists, it’s about giving away control of the internet. We’re not pro-piracy, we just a better, safer law written by people who actually understand how the internet works.
Reblogged this on Littlethunder's Storms and commented:
If we do not fight for our rights now then government will think we are dead. We need to stand together and tell Congress and the White House… leave the world wide web alone.
Great move, Word Press! We too feel that there is a huge challenge thrown to the access of of knowledge and information. Freedom of thought and expression must be preserved. Let’s all be a part of this noble cause — Protest Censorship! Compassion and not vested interests must win in the long run.
This is great. Looks like there’s no option to personalize the text of the ribbon, right?
Correct. For simplicity’s sake, all ribbons say “Stop Censorship” in English.
I’m in!
Glad to hear that people care. Now, what do you propose we do about the millions of creative people whose work is pirated over the internet for profit by others? People lose their jobs when others believe it is their right to use/download/view proprietary content without asking–or, more importantly–PAYING for it. Let’s think about how to provide a viable alternative to the bills being brought forth and examine our own acts of piracy that we all commit every day.
I’m a bit late (since i didn’t see this post earlier). Thanks WP for letting us bloggers participate!
Thanks for the heads up. bb
one word,
just stop them.
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater! As a motion picture camera operator I get my health care and penion from the funds raised by through video sales, etc. This bill may not be perfect but it can be cleaned up a bit to so that those of us in the industry who work incredibly hard in difficult situations are not denied of these things we worked for by people who STEAL and make it easier for companies like Google to do the right thing. This is not a freedom of speech issue AT ALL, it is about websites properly vetting the material, companies and links they put on their sites so that they don’t include ones that are pirating material produced by others. I think this is not about free speech at all, it’s about being responsible and not lazy about what you allow on your sites. Don’t believe the hype the internet is blasting today!
I think you may want to re-read the language in the bill. It’s not as simple as you state.
Thanks, WP, for allowing us to take part in the protest!
Thanks Jane Wells